Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie And...

Memories of Chevrolet.

Of the nine cars I've had in my lifetime, five of them have had "bowties".

By that, I mean the logo for Chevrolet, which turned 100 years old this past week.

The company, whose cars have been memorialized and romanticized in songs by the likes of Don McClean, Eric Clapton and First Class ("Beach Baby"), was actually founded by a man named Louis Chevrolet. He also was responsible for the company logo, which, according to a history the company turned out called The Chevrolet Story, he saw on a wallpaper design.

To paraphrase the automaker's current slogan, my ties with Chevrolet "run deep".

My grandparents worked for one of parent corporation General Motors' other divisions. Several days after my birth, my father got his first job at what today is known as G.M. Parma (Ohio), but then was known as a Chevrolet plant. Obviously, there were no Fords, Plymouths or Ramblers (American Motors, for younger readers) in our driveway...and certainly no Volkswagens or Toyotas.

You probably know Chevrolet has had a long presence in television advertising. The company's famous (and occasionally revived) past slogan, "See The U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet" was sung by Dinah Shore at the end of her popular late 1950's variety show, sponsored by you-know-who. In fact, here's a piece of television trivia: the two most popular T.V. shows of the late 1960's were the western Bonanza and the sitcom Bewitched. Both were sponsored by Chevrolet. Watch a Bewitched rerun today, in fact, and, if you know your cars, you will notice that most of the cars seen on the show are 1960's Chevies.

And when our family "saw the U.S.A." it was in that symbol of '60's suburbia, a Chevrolet station wagon. And in the summer of 1968, the slogan really fit when we ventured to California and back.

My first car? Well, it was from the forgettable years of the American auto industry, but it was a 1978 Chevy Monza, the forerunner of the Cavalier, whose models I've also owned.

I don't think I can tie a bow tie...but I've "worn" one for most of my life.

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